One vegetarian mom + one omnivore dad and two undecided kids = one [COMPLETED, HOORAY!] New Year’s resolution to create a ‘blended-family’-friendly vegetarian recipe every day—converting traditional family-favorite meals into meatless recipes that even picky kids (and husbands) will love! Stay tuned this year for our journey incorporating more whole foods!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Whole Wheat Pepperoni Pizza Muffins {Vegetarian}: Secret Recipe Club

The Secret Recipe Club reveal is today and I'm so excited to finally share these delicious Whole Wheat Pepperoni Pizza Muffins from Erin's lovely blog, Wholesome RD. Erin is a registered dietician in Chicago and blogs about balanced eating with wholesome recipes (which don't always conform to what we usually think of as "health food"). I enjoyed learning about Erin and really appreciated her outlook on healthy, balanced eating. I did a bit of trolling around on Erin's blog before ultimately deciding on these muffins, but I have to admit I was pretty set on making them once I saw them and couldn't be dissuaded easily. When we received our assignments, it was pretty early in our family's Get Real journey, so it was a great chance to try out whole wheat flour and homemade pepperoni on the kids.

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and oregano;
whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella, "pepperoni" and 1/4 cup of marinara sauce. Let
stand for 10 minutes. Stir the batter and divide among the muffin cups.

Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes and serve with remaining marinara sauce.

The Results
The kids LOVED these. They always love the idea of muffins for dinner and pizza muffins...awesome! This was one of my first experiments with whole wheat flour in a kid-friendly recipe (I made these right after we received our SRC assignments) and it was an encouraging early success in our Get Real journey. I thought the muffins were pretty darn tasty, too. The meat-eating husband predictably declined to try it because he's not a fan of the faux pepperoni.

I love a savory muffin, and I love the idea behind your blog! Although I'm not a vegetarian, the Hubs and I frequently eat meatless, and I'm always looking for new veggie ideas. I'm stopping by from SRC but I'd love if you check our my new site seasonalpotluck.com February is oranges month so if you have any orange recipes, we'd love if you'd link up! http://bit.ly/zDoNfx